Overview
The PIA cluster is a supercomputer belonging to the two theory groups at the MPIA in Heidelberg. The computer is situated at the Rechenzentrum Garching (RZG) near Munich. PIA has been in operation since October 2005.

Access
Please contact either Hubert Klahr (Planet and Star Formation) or Rachel Somerville (Galaxies and Cosmology).

Mail list
You can sign up for the PIA mailing list here.

Contacts
System administrator at RZG: Christian Guggenberger (christian.guggenberger at rzg.mpg.de)
Technical contact person at MPIA: Anders Johansen (johansen at mpia.de)

Technical information
Nodes
PIA consists of 128 nodes with altogether 256 single-core 2.6 GHz AMD Opteron CPUs connected through an Infiniband network. Each node has 3.8 GB memory.

Network
The fast interconnections give extremely good scaling up to high processor numbers, ideal for medium to large simulation sizes with 643, 1283 and 2563 grid points.

Compilers
PIA has compilers for Fortran 90/95 (Intel, NAG and Lahey/Fujitsu compilers) and for C and C++ (Intel and GNU compilers). Visualization tools such as IDL and Gnuplot can be used at the gate node.

Codes
PIA has succesfully run a number of astrophysical codes, including the grid codes ZEUS and Pencil Code and the SPH code GADGET.

Data disks
PIA has a 20 TB data disk mounted under /nfs/mpia/ and /nfs/mpia2/. Please contact Christian Guggenberger about access to this disk. Each node has a local scratch disc at /ltmp/, but access to the above-mentioned data disk is so fast that there is no significant speed penalty in writing data directly there.

Tape archive
PIA users have access to a tape archive mounted under /afs/ipp/m/$USER. Data that is not needed for ongoing projects should be moved to the tape archive to disburden PIA's data disks! You can check your quota there with fs lq /afs/ipp/m/$USER. Note that the number of files is also limited. When copying data to the tape archive please tar into a few files of the order of 1-10 GB each (the file system does not like to transfer larger files). You can tar directly into the archive using e.g. tar -cf /afs/ipp/m/$USER/dir.tar some_dir. Please contact support@rzg.mpg.de if you wish to have a higher disc quota at the tape archive.

Access to the nodes
You must type the command save-password once (and type your password) for simulation jobs to get access to all the computational nodes.

Submitting jobs to the queue
PIA uses the Grid Engine queueing software. You can submit a job to the queue using e.g. the command
qsub -cwd -l h_cpu=48:00:00 -q p.long -pe mvapich2 32 myjob.csh
The status of all queued and running jobs can be displayed using qstat. The commands man qsub and man qstat describe all the options that the queueing software accepts. The alternative queue short is used for single processor jobs and has a maximum running time of 24 hours.

PIA meetings
Minutes of PIA meeting 27.04.2007 (internal access only)

Regular users

NameUser nameCodesSponsor
Natalia DziourkevitchnatdZEUSHubert Klahr
Christian FendtcfendtZEUSRachel Somerville
Artur GawryszczakgawryszFLASHHubert Klahr
Gerhard HoffmanghoffTRAMPHubert Klahr
Anders JohansenajohanPencil CodeHubert Klahr
Rolf KuiperrfkTRAMPHubert Klahr
Wladimir LyrawlyraPencil CodeHubert Klahr
Andrea MacciòamaccioGASOLINERachel Somerville
Christian MaulbetschmaulbetsGADGETRachel Somerville
Alexander SchegererlesHubert Klahr

Publications
Here is a list of refereed publications based on results obtained with PIA:
  1. Macciò A. V., Kang X., Fontanot F., Somerville R. S., Koposov S. E., & Monaco P., MNRAS, submitted
  2. Neistein E., Macciò A. V., & Dekel A., MNRAS, submitted
  3. Fontanot F., Somerville R. S., & Jester S., ApJ, submitted

  4. Kimm T., et al., MNRAS, 394, 1131-1147 (2009)
  5. Fontanot F., Somerville R. S., Silva L., Monaco P., Skibba R., MNRAS, 392, 553-569 (2009)
  6. Casarini L., Macciò, A. V., & Bonometto S. A., Journal of Cosmology and Astro-Particle Physics, 3, 14 (2009)
  7. Johansen A., Youdin A., & Klahr H., ApJ, 697, 1279-1289 (2009)
  8. Schmidt K. B., Hansen S. H., An J. H., Williams L. L. R., & Macciò A. V., ApJ, 694, 893-901 (2009)
  9. Macciò A. V., Kang X., & Moore B., ApJ, 692, L109-L112 (2009)
  10. Lyra W., Johansen A., Zsom A., Klahr H., & Piskunov N., A&A, 497, 869-888 (2009)
  11. Lyra W., Johansen A., Klahr H., & Piskunov N., A&A, 493, 1125-1139 (2009)

  12. Macciò A. V., Dutton A. A., & van den Bosch F. C., MNRAS, 391, 1940-1954 (2008)
  13. Schmidt K. B., Hansen S. H., & Macciò A. V., ApJ, 689, L33-L36 (2008)
  14. Lyra W., Johansen A., Klahr H., & Piskunov N., A&A, 491, L41-L44 (2008)
  15. Johansen A., & Levin Y, A&A, 490, 501-514 (2008)
  16. Johansen A., Brauer F., Dullemond C.P., Klahr H., & Henning Th., A&A, 486, 597-611 (2008)
  17. Lyra W., Johansen A., Klahr H., & Piskunov N., A&A, 479, 883-901 (2008)

  18. Fontanot F., Monaco P., Silva L., & Grazian A., MNRAS, 382, 903-914 (2007)
  19. Johansen A., Oishi J., Mac Low M.-M., Klahr H., Henning Th., & Youdin A., Nature, 448, 1022-1025 (2007)
  20. Banerjee R., Klessen R. S., & Fendt C., ApJ, 668, 1028-1041 (2007)
  21. Johansen A., & Youdin A., ApJ, 662, 627-641 (2007)
  22. Youdin A., & Johansen A., ApJ, 662, 613-626 (2007)

  23. Johansen A., Klahr H., & Mee A. J., MNRAS, 370, L71-L75 (2006)
  24. Johansen A., Henning Th., & Klahr H., ApJ, 643, 1219-1232 (2006)
  25. Johansen A., Klahr H., & Henning Th., ApJ, 636, 1121-1134 (2006)

Page last modified on 19.05.2009.
Please send questions and comments about this page to Anders Johansen.